Dining out, attending concerts or dance performances, going to the theatre or to movies, going to parties, dances and celebrations, going to night clubs and other entertainment venues, or just hanging out with friends are some of the activities people engage in during their free time. Generally, in preparing to participate in these activities, people take great pains to look their best and to present themselves in the best possible light. Personal grooming aids and products are often employed, most of which are scented, in an effort to appear attractive. Perfumes and scented grooming products are used to enhance the effects, particularly among persons interested in attracting other persons of the opposite sex, for example.
Unfortunately, the scented effects tend to diminish rapidly, reducing the intended effect of the personal grooming efforts. Further, many of the venues for the above activities include exposure to a wide variety of odors. These odors typically originate from food and beverages in restaurants, from smoke in restaurants, bars, night clubs, etc., from the perspiration of the persons themselves and other patrons, and from other substances that may be encountered during an evening's entertainment. Many of these odors are unpleasant or become more so with the passage of time. Such odors are readily absorbed by a person's clothing or hair, and are carried with the person for the rest of the evening. Thus, not only are the original scents diminished through the natural evaporation and deterioration that occurs, but they are often overwhelmed or masked by the many odors in the surroundings. These circumstances may be especially worrisome to people in a dating situation, especially as the evening wears on and the persons anticipate extending the evening or just wish to freshen themselves before proceeding with the remainder of the evening's activities, one's next appointment, etc. Other circumstances where the need to refresh one's clothing or hair may arise include following a long or arduous meeting, working out in a gym, a long walk between offices, playing with pets, and the like.
Conventional remedies include perfume or perfumed products such as cologne applied to a person's skin or clothing, typically provided in a spray container or a bottle. Other similar products may be applied by hand. Further, it is known that certain products, such as dryer sheets for use in clothes dryers, have sometimes been used in an effort to absorb the unpleasant odors from a person's clothing or hair, but generally with limited success. Further, such dispensing devices as traditionally used for perfume or cologne are not readily available with odor neutralizing capabilities adapted to neutralizing the odors accumulated on a person's clothing. Moreover, the use of paper or fabric odor absorbing devices has heretofore failed to provide more than limited usefulness.
It is known or has been observed that certain paper or fabric products, such as the Bounce® dryer sheets and Swiffer® floor mop products manufactured and distributed by the Proctor & Gamble Corporation for the laundry and floor cleaning markets respectively, and which may respectively contain anti-static or scented compounds or cleaning agents, have certain properties that might suggest possible applications in this field of odor neutralization of clothing. However, the available configuration of these articles is not appropriate or well suited to the application of neutralizing the odors absorbed by a person's clothing in a night club or restaurant venue. The Bounce® dryer sheets and the Swiffer® mop refills are loose sheets of fabric. They are not conveniently packaged for a person's pocket or purse, are not adapted to the particular use of odor neutralization of a person's clothing, and do not contain suitable substances for neutralizing odors absorbed into or clinging to a person's clothing or for refreshing originally applied perfumes or scents.
What is needed is an apparatus and a method of using the apparatus, which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art devices and methods, that can serve both to eliminate or neutralize unpleasant odors that accumulate on a person's clothing during an evening's entertainment in a wide variety of venues, and to refresh or restore the original scent or replace it with an alternative scent.